History of Airplanes
The most successful of the Nieuport biplanes of WWI, flown by the French, British, Americans, Italians, and Russians. Often referred to in contemporary sources as the “15 meter” Nieuport (based on its total wing surface).
During the summer of 1916, many months after the appearance of the Fokker, the French produced the Nieuport 17, armed with [...]
With a distinctive large spinner, the Morane-Saulnier N looks, at least to the modern eye, better than the Parasol Type L, it met with much less success.
While the Type N was a graceful-looking aircraft, with an advanced, aerodynamic design, it was not easy to fly due to its stiff controls (using wing warping instead [...]
One of the fastest planes of its time, the Bristol M.1C monoplane fell victim to official concern about its stability and the perceived hazards of its high landing speed. There seemed to be an official distrust of monoplanes by the British authorities, and the M.1 was much-delayed. Finally some were sent to the [...]
An unusual-looking biplane with a reverse stagger of the wings, the upper being set back just aft of the cockpit, to allow better visibility for the pilot. The idea was to combine the superior performance of a tractor biplane with the unobstructured pilot’s forward view of a pusher type.
In May, 1917, No. 24 and No. [...]
The Sopwith ‘Pup’ was fast, agile, and easy-to-fly, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was developed from the personal aircraft of Harry Hawker, Sopwith Aviation’s test pilot.
Entering service in late summer of 1916, the Sopwith “Scout” (as it was officially termed) was one of the first British tractor biplanes with a synchonized machine gun. [...]
The image is a Nieuport 17
The French answer to the Fokker Eindekker was the Nieuport 11, equipped with the 80 horse-power Le Rhône (later the 110 horse-power), and armed with a Lewis gun, mounted on the top plane and shooting over the propeller. The machine was superior to the Fokker — all WWI pilots agreed [...]